The fact that Activision and Disney are raking in the dough with their respective toy/game crossover ranges hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Yesterday at E3, Nintendo officially jumped on the ‘me too’ bandwagon with the unveiling of its own interactive “Toy to Life” line that will let kids plug physical figurines of their favourite Nintendo characters into their Wii U games.
Unlike Disney Infinity and Skylanders, gamers won’t need USB pedestals to connect their figurines; they can simply bring their toys into their games using the Wii U’s GamePad controller thanks to its built-in Near Field Communications tech and microchips embedded in the figurines.
Nintendo’s Amiibos will also be able to store saved data on those chips, and according to the company they’ll even be able to learn new moves and level up based on how gamers play them.
What’s in a name?
In true (weird) Nintendo style, the new line of toys is being called ‘Amiibo’. The first run will offer plastic figurines of Pikachu, Mario, Peach, Yoshi, Kirby, Animal Crossing’s Villager, Samus, Link, the Wii Fit Trainer, and Donkey Kong. Naturally, other characters will follow as Nintendo ramps up production and demand skyrockets as kids discover they have an all-new range of toys to bug mom and dad about.
Gamespot has reported that the new line will launch ‘later this year ‘ alongside Super Smash Bros., a Nintendo-themed brawler that uses the company’s iconic characters in its fighter line-up.
Other Nintendo games will support the Amiibos, including Yoshi’s Woolly World, Mario Kart 8 and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, but apparently Nintendo didn’t say much else about them.
[Source – Gamespot, Image – Nintendo]
